• 67
percent support authorizing employment for spouses of workers
here on H1-B visas as well as expanding
opportunities for academics and researchers to come to the
U.S; 26 percent oppose.

•
47 percent said the way to deal with illegal
immigrants is to allow them to become U.S.
citizens if they have a waiting period, pay fines and back
taxes, pass a criminal background check and learn English.
Thirty-four percent said illegal immigrants should be allowed
to become permanent legal residents, but not citizens, so
long as they complete the same list of requirements. Twelve
percent are in favor of deportation.

• 64 percent support the plan the
U.S. Senate has approved that would allow illegal immigrants
to become citizens after they wait 13 years,
pay a fine and learn English; the plan also would double the
number of patrol agents and double the miles of fence along
the Mexican border. Twenty-six percent oppose.

• 76 percent support
Gov. Rick Snyder's proposal to designate one-quarter of the
nation's 40,000 annual EB-2 employment based visas for legal
immigrants who are willing to live and work in
Detroit for at least five years and who have advanced degrees
in STEM areas or other valuable knowledge and skills. 17
percent oppose.

•
79 percent support immigration reform that
would make it easier for international
students with advanced STEM degrees to stay in Michigan. 15
percent oppose.

•
25 percent in favor of promoting legal
immigration said the major benefit to Michigan
is attracting and retaining talented people;
20 percent said it would create well-paying jobs; 14 percent
said it would help the economy, and 12 percent said it was
because immigrants pay taxes.

• 57 percent of those opposing
promoting legal immigration said we should
focus on employing the people already here.

• 49 percent believe the state's
efforts to attract immigrants should be restricted
to the highly educated; 28 percent believe
that immigrants of lower economic and educational status
should be included.

2014 American Dreamers

In many ways, metro Detroit was built
by immigrants. They left their homelands to escape war and
persecution, to get an education or to seek more economic
opportunity.

The American Dreamers
profiled in this section have built professions and
businesses across industries as diverse as they are, from
restaurants to automotive, life sciences, venture capital and
social services.

But their stories
share a common theme: Hard work and persistence pay
off.

Gov. Rick Snyder's plan to promote legal immigration as an economic strategy for metro Detroit is supported by an overwhelming majority of businesspeople in Southeast Michigan.

A survey commissioned by Crain's Detroit Business and Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, and conducted by Lansing-based Epic-MRA Corp., found that 76 percent thought Snyder's plan was a good idea. Most saw it as a way to attract and retain skilled, smart and talented people. Respondents also cited creating good-paying jobs and improving the economy as reasons.

The random survey of 300 business owners, operators, officers or managers in Southeast Michigan was conducted April 22-28 to gauge reaction to immigration reform proposals and the economy. The survey has an error margin of plus or minus 5.7 percentage points.

Carol Friend

"I was very encouraged to see there is significant support within businesses in the state to support legal immigration," said Carol Friend, partner and business immigration practice group leader at Honigman.

She said she thinks that's the case because people understand Detroit was built by motivated entrepreneurs, which immigrants often turn out to be.

"It's good to see there is a recognition we still need that in our city and our state," she said.

But it also may because a large number of metro Detroiters are close to their immigrant roots. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed said they, a parent or a grandparent were immigrants.

Solid support

The individual pieces of Snyder's immigration proposals aimed at attracting highly educated immigrants also received high marks with those polled.

One piece of his plan, which has been accomplished — federal approval of a state-sponsored EB-5 regional center — saw 79 percent support, with 12 percent opposing it. The center is focused on attracting wealthy immigrants who can receive a green card for themselves and their family if they invest $1 million, or $500,000 in a high-unemployment or rural area, in a business that creates at least 10 jobs here.

Snyder's plan to ask the federal government to designate one quarter of the 40,000 annual EB-2 visas for legal immigrants who are willing to live and work in Detroit for five years was supported by 76 percent of respondents, with 41 percent strongly supporting it. There were 17 percent that opposed it, with 11 percent strongly opposed.

There was also strong support for Snyder's call to change the federal immigration system so that foreign students who receive advanced degrees in state universities do not have to return to their country upon graduation. On this idea, 79 percent support Snyder's call, with 15 percent in opposition.

Friend said fixing this problem, which stems from an H1-B visa shortage, is one that will only continue to get worse if nothing is done.

There are 85,000 H1-B visas available each year nationwide, and this year, 172,500 petitions were filed. The recipients are selected through a random lottery system.

Honigman filed 67 petitions this year for clients across the country, and 45 were chosen in the lottery. Of the 22 not selected in the lottery, nine were those with master's degrees.

"These individuals already are working," she said. "Now those employers will have to either send the student back to school, or if it's an international firm, send the individual abroad to work at a subsidiary, or they have to terminate employment and send them home."

Robert O'Neill, CFO of Shelby Township-based Spec Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of fixtures and equipment for the automotive industry, said he also supports the calls for immigration reform, saying his company has had a difficult time finding high-tech workers.

O'Neill, who took part in the survey, said just because someone lives here doesn't mean he is entitled to a job.

"I think anybody who is willing to work hard for a living, they should have the opportunity," O'Neill said. "If immigrants want to come here and work hard, that is what started America and made us successful."

O'Neill said opening the state up to immigrants will lead to an improved economy, because that always occurs when you hire motivated people who want to better themselves.

Evan Mountain, owner of the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Bloomfield Hills, said the complexity and limitations of the federal immigration laws are keeping him from being able to hire more dance instructors from Eastern Europe.

He would like to see the federal laws reformed, and indicated in the poll that he strongly supported Snyder's policies as well.

"It directly affects my business," he said.

He said he spends thousands of dollars and a lot of time working with his attorney trying to work within the system. He said it is difficult to find high-quality dance instructors in the region, and even across the U.S., while there are thousands in Eastern Europe that want to come to America, he said.

If he could, he said, he would hire four more teachers right now.

"I am limited on the number of employees I can have. I want to hire more, but I can't find them," he said. "My hands are tied. I could pay more taxes, if I could hire more teachers. It is so frustrating."

Another view

Not everyone is supportive of Snyder's plans.

Among the 15 percent polled who think it is a bad idea to attract more immigrants to Michigan, the overwhelming reason given was that we should be employing the people already here.

That was the sentiment expressed in the poll by Harvey Rabinowitz, president of West Bloomfield-based Media...Period, a media planning and buying service. "We should employ people who live here and train them and give them jobs," he said. "Having a grad student from India or from wherever taking the place of a grad student here ... I just don't buy into it. It's not logical to me."

Jody Kuhn, owner of Bingham Farms-based Kuhn & Associates, a small accounting firm, said she is supportive of immigration reform to a point, but said as much, if not more, emphasis needs to be placed on reforming the state's education system.

"Michigan is losing the war on educating our children," she said. "I don't see too many kids staying here after they graduate because there aren't jobs available."

In her profession, she said, it is easier if students coming out of college had the skills needed, but they don't, and training an immigrant not familiar with state and federal tax laws would take too long.

Kuhn said she doesn't have a serious problem with bringing in highly skilled immigrants, but not to the point that students in Michigan can't get into the medical schools here, even if they have the highest grades possible.

Snyder's immigration proposals are largely, if not exclusively, focused on attracting wealthy or highly skilled and educated immigrants, and respondents agreed that was the best course, with 49 percent agreeing.

There were 28 percent of respondents who felt that the state should also try to attract less wealthy and less educated immigrants, and 14 percent who said Michigan should not attract immigrants at all.

National action

On the national level, 85 percent said it was important that President Obama and Congress pass immigration reform, with 7 percent saying it was not important at all. There were 24 percent of respondents who deemed it essential.

When given some of the details of the plan, including attracting the best and brightest entrepreneurs from other countries and highly skilled immigrants and their spouses, the support declined to 67 percent, with 26 percent opposing it.

It declined slightly again among respondents when asked about another detail of the plan — accelerating the process of connecting the work in the labs of biomedical entrepreneurs developing commercial entities so they can enter their ideas into the marketplace faster. This time, 64 percent supported it, with 22 percent in opposition.

John Cavanagh, co-founder of EPIC-MRA, said the lessened support likely had more to do with the way people respond to such questions, rather than the merits of Obama's proposal.

"Things tend to get greater support until you get into the components," he said, while noting the converse is true for Obamacare. He said the president's health care law is perceived negatively overall, but many of its component parts have higher approval ratings.

Cavanagh said he wasn't sure what to expect from the results overall, given it was surveying a business audience rather than average voters.

"They take a somewhat less emotional view on immigration than the general public," he said.

Richard Smith, an assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University who also focuses on immigration, said he was not surprised by the results because business owners have to deal with the realities of not having enough qualified workers and the complexities of the immigration system every day.

"(They) see this is a barrier to doing business," he said.

Smith said Snyder's policies and having the governor going out and making the case publicly that Michigan is open and inviting to immigrants will make a difference.

"It's great if you have a welcoming state," Smith said. "That will have a positive impact."

Cavanagh said the fact that Snyder's immigration proposals received stronger support than Obama's, has to do with the president having a lower approval rating in this survey than Snyder, as well as the general negative attitude people have toward Washington right now.

"Immigration is a political issue nationwide, but it certainly doesn't wear the same clothes here," he said.